The legislation would allow ‘faith-based’ schools, hospitals and businesses – subsidised with public funds – to discriminate against would-be users of those facilities based on such things as sexual- and religious-orientation, gender, marital status and so on; while still receiving public funding to operate.

Citizenship is an interesting tripartite concept, which involves protection, participation, and obligation. How that all interacts with virtual worlds in the 21st Century is something of a perennial topic.

An Australian student in Victoria recently contacted his local Member for Parliament, newly elected Geoff Shaw, in order to raise concerns about proposed anti-discrimination legislation. The legislation would allow church-operated schools, hospitals and businesses – subsidised with public funds – to discriminate against would-be users of those facilities based on such things as sexual- and religious-orientation, gender, marital status and so on; while still receiving public monies to operate.

“I’m 20 in a week. I’m able to vote. I want to work, live and love freely during the course of my life, and I want to do that without thinking that I can’t,” wrote the student in a letter to Shaw.

His representative’s reply left him deeply offended and has attracted the ire of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner.